– Hotels and restaurants in Harris County directly employed more than 162,000 workers in 2011 and had $7.9 billion in sales during the year. People working as hospitality employees comprised 9% of Harris County’s total private sector employment.– In 2011, there were an estimated 41,800 indirect and induced jobs at suppliers and other businesses. The total employment contribution of the Harris County hospitality industry is estimated to be 203,900 full-time and part-time jobs. For every ten hotel and restaurant employees, there are nearly three indirect or induced jobs in the local economy.– Hotels and restaurants and their employees contributed an estimated $792 million in direct, indirect and induced state and local taxes in 2011. The majority of direct taxes were property taxes paid by hospitality industry establishments and their employees.– Hotels and restaurants remitted $740 million in 2011 in sales and hotel occupancy taxes on consumer purchases.– The hospitality industry made a combined tax contribution, taxes paid and remitted, of $1.5 billion in 2011.– Indirect and induced economic activity related to hotels and restaurants supported an additional 41,800 jobs and $5.3 billion in sales.– For every million dollars of direct industry sales, there was an estimated $700,000 of associated indirect and induced sales related to hospitality industry purchases from: local suppliers and hospitality industry & supplier employee purchases from local businesses.– Indirect and induced economic activity related to the hospitality industry in Harris County contributed $156 million in additional state and local taxes.– The hospitality industry’s total Harris County direct, indirect and induced income contribution totaled $6.0 billion in 2011, including $3.5 billion of direct wages, tips and benefits paid to hospitality industry employees and $2.5 billion of indirect and induced income earned by employees of suppliers and other businesses.– For each dollar of direct compensation paid to hospitality industry employees, the total estimated contribution to Harris County personal income was $1.70.

Someone like me would argue various issues also come into play in some of these sectors, whether it is low wages, lack of employee benefits, or wage theft, or some other issue the GHRA may not enjoy reading about with their report, but for now, it is good to know just what the industry’s impact is on the Houston area. The issues to which I refer may not reflect on the entire industry, but they deserve their own study nonetheless.

Still, this report gives us a picture of an industry that one way or another benefits Houston.